Pavarotti in "serious" condition -- Italian media

Pavarotti in "serious" condition -- Italian media

By Gilles Castonguay

MODENA, Italy (Reuters) - Italian opera star Luciano Pavarotti, hailed by many as the greatest tenor of his generation, was in a serious condition on Wednesday after a battle with cancer, media reported.

The 71-year-old rotund, black-bearded singer, who helped bring opera to the masses and performed to vast stadium audiences round the world, had briefly lost consciousness, the ANSA news agency said.

Italian opera star Luciano Pavarotti is seen singing during part of his round-the-world farewell tour concerts in Shanghai, China in this December 6, 2005 file photo. (REUTERS/ Nir Elias)

A TV station in Pavarotti's home city of Modena said he was unconscious and suffering from kidney failure, and that family and friends had gathered at his villa to be near the singer, who underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer in July 2006.

"(Pavarotti) it has been learned is at home in very serious condition," said the AGI news agency.

Medical authorities in the northern city declined to comment on his condition but one of Pavarotti's friends, contacted by Reuters, said she had also heard he was in a serious condition.

Neither his family nor manager could be reached for comment about Pavarotti, who shot to fame with a stand-in appearance at London's Covent Garden in 1963 and soon had critics gushing about his voluminous voice.

Perhaps his biggest gift to the music world was when he teamed up with Spanish stars Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras at the 1990 soccer World Cup and introduced operatic classics to an estimated 800 million television viewers round the globe.

Quoted from thestar.com.my